Wimbledon 2009: Laura Robson simmers, then boils before running out of steam

Perhaps it was a good thing. The end of a thousand lenses is no place for a 15
year-old girl to grow into womanhood, as good as she might be at tennis.
Laura Robson can hit a ball, no question. But she cannot escape her teenage
station. Not yet at least.

If looks could kill: Laura Robson looks less than impressed after being commiserated by Daniela HantuchovaPhoto: REUTERS

At home you can close a bedroom door behind a volcanic daughter. Here when insecurities were exposed, there was no looking away. Robson is caught between needs; the requirement to improve, and the desire to develop in her own space.

The urge to build on her success in the juniors last year led her into the main draw of a grand slam event for the first time. Physically she does not look out of place. The official handbook puts her at 5ft 8in. Like the Forbes rich list, you could probably add an inch to estimates and be closer to the truth.

She can also hold her own in an innocent, knockabout way in the media crucible after matches. She led the banter over the design values attached to tournament towels and the perils of sitting GCSEs in "big, old churches". She also had a line on the combining of professional tennis with the adolescent social scene. "I socialise. Yeah. What do you want me to say, I've got no friends?"

That brought a laugh. For her, the set-piece interview is no longer the torture it might have been. She has had plenty of practice since her emergence 12 months ago. Besides, the big bad media knows its place. There will be a time when we gnarled, old hacks will answer back. Right now we are still at the kindergarten stage.

Not so out in the middle. On this day at least Daniela Hantuchova was an angel in hobnail boots, a rhino-skinned mercenary happy to saw the legs off a precocious whippersnapper 11 years her junior. She wasn't happy trailing by a set and a break. The embarrassment gauge was nudging the end stops.

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Six years ago only four women were ranked higher than her. At the point at which she might have gone under she brought that experience to bear. Robson, despite broad technical parity, had no reference on which to lean and thus began the inexorable slide from supremacy to disappointment.

Her opponent understood that she was walking into a booby trap. "It didn't feel very good getting kicked by, you know, a girl 11 years younger than me." Still only 26, Hantuchova has served her time under the tennis microscope. Weight issues were part of the discourse as she emerged into the spotlight the wrong side of size zero. Her spider-like limbs still look vulnerable if the wind were to get up.

It is her own uncomfortable entry into the media hitting zone that leaves Hantuchova qualified to pass judgment on Robson. Asked how she would have handled the day Hantuchova said: "Probably the same. You don't have the experience. Sometimes maybe not go for crazy shots at important points. She reminded me a lot of myself. She has great feel in her hands. She is not afraid to do whatever she feels like on court. She has nothing to lose and can just swing at the ball. So I was thinking, gosh that felt so good when I was her age. At some points in the match I was like, 'Oh, I think I'm playing myself'."

Hantuchova is ranked 32 and unseeded here. She has battled self-doubt as much as injury, which has attracted that unfortunate sporting stigma 'choker'. Robson did not run out of guts but steam. "She's got talent. She seems like a nice girl. It is important now that she has the right people around her. It is still a long way for her to go. But definitely she has potential. It is important she keeps working on the right things and goes in the right direction," Hantuchova said.

It is not the end of the line for the Robson train. It pulls into the Wimbledon station again next week when she defends the junior crown. She is also contesting the doubles with Georgie Stoop. She was right to be proud of her contribution on Monday.

The honour of cutting the ribbon on the new Court No 2 fell to her. She began her grand slam odyssey with an ace, broke serve first up then hit a second ace to establish a 3-0 lead. Easy game this tennis.

The first shout of "Come on Laura" echoed before she had set a towel on her chair, rapidly followed by "no problemo". Why the Spanish/Italian inflection none could say. Poor Hantuchova had only a walk on part at this point, with the full compliment of cameras on the photographer's bench pointing the other way.

Robson was the commanding force for a set and a half. The early break in the fifth game of the second set saw her hitting the ball with real authority. The shoulders were open, the racket coming through. A mis-hit drop shot at 30 all in the sixth broke the spell. Hantuchova broke back.

Subsequent setbacks were greeted like a death in the family. Hantuchova fiddled with her racket, slowed the points, controlled the points. Robson simmered, then boiled. Emotionally she was on the limit. The next career step, as Bobby Kennedy once said and Hantuchova demonstrated, is not to get mad but even.